A week ago I had the pleasure to be a clinician at the Ontario Soccer Association Coaching Conference as a part of the Canada Soccer Association implementation of Long Term Player Development (LTPD) for their Olympic sports.For our sport LTPD takes into account that it takes more than 20 years to deeply develop a top notch soccer player.

On March 23rd I gave a class session to the technical directors. Please click here for the PowerPoint presentation: [link].On March 24th I conducted a demo session on Defending Games for the public.

It was quite encouraging to hear from a national team head coach an approach to not only coaching a national team, but also the plan for the development of female football for an entire nation hitting on many of the same philosophies and methods that we advocate. Mindset and problem solving/tactical awareness were central themes of coach Herdman’s lecture and practical sessions.

It was also good to receive indirect validation of the American approach from a renowned national association, the Football Association. The Future Game is the new model in England. Indeed, as you look now at the coaching and player development schemes of many nations you’ll see common ground with the direction that US Youth Soccer has taken for many years. The common points are the use of guided discovery, player-centered training and matches, small-sided games, problem solving by players in training to create a soccer savvy player, the use of games based training, etc.